Holygiant

Decisions are coming out tonight. I got denied about an hour ago

Definitely not freaking out... How did they let you know? Phone call?

I also applied to Berkeley! I applied to their normal 2 year program. I have heard exactly nothing back. Apparently they start releasing decisions in march

What kind of work do you want to do? How much are you looking for a school that is clinically focused? I've really struggled with where to apply, actually. I am interested in eventually becoming a private therapist, but I am struggling to find schools that seem like they have really good clinical programs and are well known (and seem easily transferable reputation-wise between NY and CA). This year I am only applying to UC Berkeley and USC b/c I am in the process of moving to California. If I don't get into either of them, I will regroup and figure out what I want to do. I don't have to go this year, but it would dovetail nicely into me moving to CA. My previous work is not in a related field, but it kind of is. I have a ton of experience helping individuals who are neurodivergent overcome a specific challenge. If you want more details I'd be happy to PM you but what I do is pretty unique and I have a relatively large profile in my field, and I don't want to out myself.

Thanks for this! Sorry you got rejected....would you mind sharing your stats?

One thing to also consider is how much you want the social aspect of grad school. If you are a commuter student, you won't really have a chance to interact with your peers outside of class. I wouldn't commute for that reason alone, but thats just me. Also my partner commutes about twice a week. She spends weekends in Brooklyn and the week in NB at school. She has come to really despise the commute, but you may feel differently. She has her own place in NB Also I'm assuming field placement in NYC is way better and way more interesting than NB. I would be super surprised if Rutgers couldn't place you in NYC. Yeah if you want to live in NYC for the experience of it as well, and you have experience with big cities I'd say go for it. As long as you can swing the cost. Its actually hard to find a 2 BR as large as mine is. But its more expensive because of that. It also has like...14 feet ceilings, so its a pretty nice apartment. I'm moving because I really love the outdoors and although there are amazing woods only 90 min outside of NYC, Lyme disease is becoming an epidemic here. I got lyme a few years ago and it kinda wrecked my health in a bunch of ways, so I want to move to a place where its way less of a problem. Also I absolutely adore Berkeley. We are moving there in a few months anyway, so I may just not go back to school this year if I don't get into Berkeleys program.

Yeah of course. I would definitely recommend going to visit and don't just take my word for it. Again I am somewhat biased because I despise NJ as a whole. That being said.... Living in NYC and commuting is gonna be rough. The train from Penn Station is 40-60 minutes depending on whether its an express or not and its...not the most reliable. Plenty of people depend on it for a daily commute, but I don't think I'd be able to. You could drive also but traffic is a thing. Oftentimes its just as quick to drive as to take the train....except that it really depends on where in NYC you live. I live super close to Manhattan, so its only 30 minutes to Penn Station from where I live, but that then makes the commute over an hour even if you take the express train to NB. So its kind of a journey. NYC is also expensive. Like...theres just not cheap housing here. To give a couple of rough approximations. A room in a shitty random house in NB is prolly $600-800 a month. A small 600 ft 1 bedroom at Raritan is approx $1000 a month. A 2 bedroom at the luxury buildings in New Brunswick is $2500 a month. A room in a shitty random house in Manhattan is prolly $1200 a month. A 1 bedroom in Manhattan is probably closer to $2000-2500 a month. My luxury 2 bedroom in a trendy part of Brooklyn is $4750 a month. And my place is like....950 square feet. So its nice, but not huge (for NYC standards it is). You can get cheaper housing by going to an outer borough like deeper in brooklyn or queens, but then your travel time increases substantially, and some of the neighborhoods are not super safe. NYC is an amazing wonderful place to live, but its hard. Just everything in this city is hard and its crowded. People are amazing and NYC is a place I do think everyone should live in their life, but it will make the whole experience for you somewhat more difficult. = You can also consider Hoboken or Jersey City, since you could drive to NB more easily/its cheaper/you can take t he PATH into the city

New Brunswick is good....for jersey. I've lived in NYC for almost 15 years and before then California so NJ is sometimes weird as hell. A few things to know about NJ and New Brunswick: 1. Honor culture is a thing. Its not super intense like the south, but NJ has random southern tendencies. Not so much in New Brunswick, altho if you go 40 minutes south you will see tons of trucks with confederate flags and such. 2. Housing is expensive, and terrible. Most of the houses in New Brunswick are owned by a few groups who have basically bought them all up and then control the rental market to students. Housing is generally done on a per room basis so a lot of times you don't know your housemates until you move in. They are also, from what I can tell, super slummy. There are a couple of nice apartment buildings in town, and a couple of super expensive ones. I'd recommend Raritan Gardens for a nice in between of semi-reasonable prices, as well as decent living spaces. 3. Its not that safe, but seemingly randomly so. There are reports of muggings of college students with some frequency. There is also the occasional gang related happening. 4. Its walkability sucks. There is a downtown and there are some decent places there, but its a little bit far from where downtown housing tends to be. You will have to drive most places. 5. Food is pretty decent. Some places which are quite good actually. 6. The downtown area is pretty cute. A number of restaurants and bars along the main area. 7. There are some actual gorgeous parts of it. The city goes over a river basically and has some parks on the river and it just very picturesque. Also...just FYI I'm pretty biased because I lived in Brooklyn while shes been in school, so while I'm trying to give New Brunswick a fair shake, I'm sure i'm not. NJ as a whole I despise...New Brunswick I don't like, but its way better than most of NJ.

Ah ok. Cool thanks so much for that. And yeah Columbia is way more expensive than UC Berkeley. If anyone has any questions about Columbia I know a bit about it (as well as NYU and Hunter). Where in NJ is the Rutgers MSW program? You had questions about NJ I may be able to answer. My partner is currently going to school at their New Brunswick campus.

Where is the Rutgers MSW campus? My partner goes to school at Rutgers in New Brunswick so I know a lot about that campus, but not much about the others.

Hi! I am applying to UC Berkeley which I am extremely interested in and USC which I am less interested in. Does anyone know how long UC Berkeley usually takes to respond to apps? Also I've done a ton of research (or tried to) and what I can see is that Berkeleys acceptance rate is around 20% and Columbias is around 60%. Given that they are similarly ranked, this seems crazy to me...am I missing something? = Thanks!